Railroad Forums 

  • Anyone still playing Trainz - TANE?

  • General discussion of computer gaming and railroad simulations. Topics include MS Train Simulator (MSTS), Auran Trainz, Railroad Tycoon, Railroad Dispatcher and more...
General discussion of computer gaming and railroad simulations. Topics include MS Train Simulator (MSTS), Auran Trainz, Railroad Tycoon, Railroad Dispatcher and more...

Moderators: LIRRMEDFORD, 8th Notch

 #1360819  by CPSK
 
I see that every thread in this forum is on TS15 or TS16. Are there any Trainzers out there who have been playing T-ANE?
 #1360835  by NaugyRR
 
Eh, I gave up on Trainz after 2010. I loved the ease of use the world editor had, and essentially had endless space to build a 'model' railroad of my dreams, but I kinda lost interest. I was a long time MSTS user, but interest faded there too after TS came out.

Of course I wish TS had less expensive/better payware than what's out there. How is it a company like Making-Tracks, 3DTS, etc. could develop add-ons for MSTS with more than two locomotives for what TS is charging? It's pretty sad I gotta wait for Steam Sales in order to buy "DLC".
 #1360897  by CPSK
 
I used to be a die-hard Trainzer until a couple years ago when my interest faded as well. Now, I'm mostly using T-ANE as a method of relaxation when it's too late do do anything productive. I enjoy creating routes from scratch - mainly terrain without track to start, but keeping in mind that I want to have a place to lay my track when I do get to it.
I am disappointed with TS15; it being so counter-intuitive for creating a route. That is Trainz best feature - so intuitive that a 5yr old could create a route.

CP
 #1361108  by rr503
 
I have trainz 12, and despite it not being the newest version, I get a lot out of it.
Like CPSK, the real reason I have it is the route building feature. I can build MY world, and run MY trains when I want them :)
 #1361140  by NaugyRR
 
I totally agree on the world builder in Trainz being the best out there.

One of my favorite projects that I never quite finished was doing upgrades to the old Highland Valley route and giving it a NY/MA/CT tri-state region twist. The last two upgrades I had done were a New Haven-themed version and an 80's grunge thing. I even had some reskins published to the DLS, under the username 'tbob'.

I think my greatest claim to fame though is having my name under the "Special Thanks" in the credits of Trainz Classics for providing Auran/N3V with info on the Harlem Line; even got a free copy of the game out of it!
 #1452310  by Nonstopmaximum
 
I'm an older Trainz player and I initially wanted to buy TANE but suddenly lost interest due to the outrageous prices they were asking for downloadable content. It also incredibly disappoints me how Auran or N3V took that direction with the series and have to force you to play it on Steam like the Dovetail simulators. That being said I just stick to my older versions like TS2004, TS2006, TSD, and TS2009 which are all simulators i've throughly enjoyed playing and I still do occasionally use TS2009 for editing some older routes of mine and creating new ones.
 #1459921  by CPSK
 
I was a Kickstarter contributor, so I received the 1st version of TANE "free" when it was released.
Since then I have purchased the boxed version so that I could have a DRM Free copy - in case N3V servers suddenly disappear.
I have been quite a bit disappointed with the new sim, even after two SP's. For one, as you said a lot of the content is now payware. Sure, there is still so much free content available - a whole lot more than any other sim can offer, but my biggest "pet peeve" is that there is still so much older content on DLS. I suppose that this older content is still available to serve the needs of those who are running older versions of Traniz, but you have to agree that a lot of that content is pure junk.

I am not happy with the quality of ground textures. The most realistic textures I have found have "TS12" in their name, so I search for them. Some of the older textures are downright ugly, and impossible to get looking halfway decent, even using the [ and ] keys to rotate them as they are painted.
Then there is the issue with opacity. When you paint a texture, you have no control over its opacity, and therefore cannot blend textures as should be done.

all of this aside, I have seen some of the routes created by others using the same version of TANE I am running, and I have been impressed. So I guess you just have to be a bit of an artist to get things looking just right.
The addition of "procedural junctions", which are animated switches where the switches look and function realistically, was a great improvement. Before that there was a method to get animated junctions, but it was tedious and had its issues.

It seems to me that N3V is focused on creating new games for tablets, rather than improving their high-end PC based games. That is unfortunate, since it is the PC where all the power is, and will be to run the most complex games.